This vegan carrot cake with hazelnuts and orange is another twist on a classic carrot cake. Its flavours were inspired by a simple but lovely carrot and hazelnut cake remembered from my pre-vegan days, from Falko Konditormeister, a german bakery in Edinburgh and Haddington. (I haven’t visited recently, so they may have some vegan options nowadays.)
The recipe uses hazelnut oil, which is expensive and not always easy to find, but it adds a special richness and flavour. If you focus on how much a single slice of decent carrot cake costs when you eat out, the oil will start to look like a bargain!
If hazelnut oil isn’t available, sunflower oil is perfectly good and you can always add a bit more orange zest to intensify that flavour instead.
The texture is very much that of a classic carrot cake – soft, moist, and loose without falling apart. I think it improves if you let it settle for a day before eating, which is true of so many cakes. In fact, if you find a forgotten slice in the cupboard a couple of days later, it seems to taste better than ever.
carrot cake with Hazelnuts and Orange…
ingredients
- 220 g carrots (peeled, topped and tailed weight)
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 140 ml hazelnut oil (or sunflower oil)
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
- 160 g dark, unrefined sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- zest of half an orange
- 200 g self-raising flour (white or a 50/50 mix of white and wholemeal)
- 1 scant tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 50 g raisins
- 30 g finely chopped hazelnuts
for the icing
- 180 g icing sugar
- 10 g vegan margarine at room temperature
- 1-2 tbsp plain soya yoghurt
- zest of half an orange
- a few drops vanilla extract
- 20 g chopped hazelnuts
method
- Set the oven to 180°C/360°F and line a suitable baking tin (the pictured cake was made in a 7″ square tin; it’s a bit easier to extract the finished cake if you use a round springform tin).
- Mix the ground flaxseed with two tablespoons of water and set aside.
- Roughly grate the carrots, and sprinkle over the orange juice.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the hazelnut oil, flaxseed, vanilla, sugar and orange zest.
- Add the grated carrot to the liquid mixture and stir through.
- Sift the flour, bicarb and spices into a separate bowl before tipping this into the liquid mixture together with the coconut, raisins and hazelnuts and stirring lightly to combine.
- Transfer the mixture to the tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The cake will look ready long before it has finished baking, so test with a skewer to ensure it is not still sticky in the centre.
- While the cake is cooling, make the icing by combining the ingredients, except for the hazelnuts, in a bowl and beating until they are smooth. Add one tablespoon of yoghurt to begin with – you may find this is enough to create a soft icing that just holds its shape.
- Once the cake has cooled completely, apply the icing and sprinkle with the chopped hazelnuts.
- Ideally, you should leave the cake to chill for several hours, or overnight, before cutting, and then bring it back up to room temperature before eating.
Another variation on the carrot cake theme is my recipe for Ruby Carrot Cake with Beetroot:
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